Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems 213

Jennifer S. Raj
Ram Palanisamy
Isidoros Perikos
Yong Shi Editors

Intelligent
Sustainable
Systems
Proceedings of ICISS 2021
Blockchain-Based User Authentication
in Cloud Governance Model

Ankur Biswas and Abhishek Roy

Abstract Evolution of digital communication has facilitated human beings to avail

electronic services at their doorsteps. User can overcome the compulsion of their
physical presence for accessing any type of service and hence can perform multiple
tasks while availing electronic services within the same time frame. Furthermore,
the present situation of global pandemic of corona virus (COVID19) has shown the
necessity of electronic communication, so as to maintain the rules of social dis-
tancing to prevent transmission of virus within our society. In this entire process,
utmost focus should be given over security of sensitive information which are trans-
mitted through open digital medium (like Cloud). Advanced security schemes like
Blockchains may be used to ensure digital identity of users. This task becomes more
compact if an integrated environment can be designed for deployment, monitoring,
and maintenance of multifaceted electronic services in a secured and Citizen centric
manner. In this case, a multivariate smart card will act as a single window interface
between the Citizen and Government for transmission of SERVICE REQUEST
and SERVICE RESPONSE, respectively. The application of Blockchain within this
integrated electronic service delivery model will build trust among the end users. To
achieve this objective, authors have proposed Blockchain-based user authentication
scheme during Citizen to Government (C2G) type of Cloud Governance transaction.

Keywords Cloud computing · User authentication · Blockchain · Smart card

1 Introduction

With the gradual evolution of Information and Communication Technology (ICT),

human beings have learned to communicate over virtual mediums like Internet,
Cloud, etc. The application of these virtual medium has facilitated us to commu-
nicate in a faster, accurate, and budget friendly manner through open digital space,
i.e., Internet. Due to this approach, the compulsion of physical presence of user (while

A. Biswas (B) · A. Roy

Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Adamas University, Kolkata, India

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 815
J. S. Raj et al. (eds.), Intelligent Sustainable Systems, Lecture Notes
in Networks and Systems 213, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2422-3_64
816 A. Biswas and A. Roy

availing any type of service) has been reduced to a significant level thereby exploring
scope of performing multiple task simultaneously for optimum utilization of time.
Moreover, the present situation of global pandemic of corona virus (COVID19) has
compelled us to avail electronic mode of message communication to maintain the
rules of social distancing to break the chain of virus transmission within society. How-
ever in case of electronic communication, as the communicating parties are unable
to meet with each other over physical mode, security of sensitive information that are
being transmitted through open digital medium (i.e., Internet) should be maintained
at highest level. The entire success of electronic communication is dependent on the
security of electronic messages [18]. If these sensitive information are divulged to
any unauthorized user [3], the integrity of electronic message communication will
be highly compromised. To prevent such disasters, advanced security concept like
Blockchain may be used for authentication [8–11] of user and detection of invalid
user to maintain the integrity of any electronic transaction like Cloud Governance,
Cloud Banking, Cloud Healthcare system, Cloud Transport management, etc. This
entire task becomes more compact if an integrated environment can be designed for
deployment, monitoring, and maintenance of multifaceted electronic services in a
secured and Citizen centric manner. Citizen will use this smart card [26], namely,
Multipurpose Electronic Card (MEC) to send SERVICE REQUEST to the Ser-
vice Provider and receive corresponding SERVICE RESPONSE as reply from the
Service Provider. To build trust of end user, in this paper authors have shown the
application of Blockchain for authentication of end user during Cloud Governance
transaction.
Section 2 of this paper describes the basic concept of Blockchain. Literature review
describes in the Sect. 3. The origin of our research work, i.e., multivariate smart
card-based Cloud Governance is briefly mentioned in Sect. 4 of this paper. Section 5
describes our Blockchain-based user authentication scheme over Cloud Governance
model. Finally, the conclusion of this research work along with its future dimension
is explored in Sect. 6 of this paper.

2 Basics of Blockchain

Blockchain is a distributed and decentralized ledger [4, 30, 31, 33]that stores data of
any electronic transaction and share them publicly with all nodes across its network.
As shown in Fig. 1, Blockchain consists of collection of blocks [12], where each
block acts as a data storage unit to store data within its data field. Each block is
uniquely identified using an unique value [5], which actually looks like a random
string of characters. This unique value is called Hash[29], because it is generated
from a cryptographic hash function [21] which generates an unique output for every
unique input. The input of block hash includes the data it needs to store and metadata
about that block, like the information of lastly created hash, etc. The last hash of
hash value is set for every new block to hash of block that came before it. In this way
a chain of block is created using the subsequent blocks. Each new block reference
Blockchain-Based User Authentication in Cloud Governance Model 817

Fig. 1 Conceptual diagram of blockchain

is a hash of the last block in the current chain. We are using Blockchain because
it is fair, democratized, and completely public [20]. Due to its compactness and
inter-dependencies among the blocks within the same chain, it provides a highly
secure [22, 32, 34] data storage mechanism. To breach the security protocol of
Blockchain-based electronic data storage system, hacker should take control of very
large number of nodes and computers, which is not an easy task to achieve. However,
as the blockchain is public in nature, attacker could attempt to intercept the electronic
transaction. To counter such malicious attempts, crypto-currency uses cryptography
to protect Blockchain using algorithms to obscure data through cryptic messages.
In this paper, we have discussed Blockchain-based user authentication within Cloud
Governance model during Citizen to Government (C2G) type of transaction.

3 Literature Review

In paper [2] author have proposed a Cloud Governance model for availing multiple
services using a single smart card=based interface, namely, Multipurpose Electronic
Card (MEC) [27]. To maintain the security perspective of this proposed model, its
Intrusion Detection System during Cloud Governance transaction is discussed in
paper [25]. As this model is projected as a multifaceted electronic service delivery
model, in paper [26] authors have discussed the database structure for Electronic
Voting (i.e., E-Voting) using this smart model. To explore its research scope, object-
oriented modeling during Cloud Healthcare system is discussed in paper [28]. In
this paper we have used this smart model as origin of our research work, which is
discussed in the subsequent sections.
 818

Fig. 2 Conceptual diagram of cloud governance model

A. Biswas and A. Roy
Blockchain-Based User Authentication in Cloud Governance Model 819

4 Origin of Work

Cloud Governance model [1, 2, 25–28] is the origin of our research work and we
have implemented user authentication using Blockchain during Cloud Governance
transaction. This model facilitates delivery of multivariate electronic services to Cit-
izen, like Banking, Healthcare, Voting, Education, etc., in a Citizen centric manner
using a Multipurpose Electronic Card [1]. The primary components of this Cloud
Governance model are mentioned below:
1. Citizen (i.e., Service Seeker).
2. Government (i.e., Service Provider / Administrator).
3. Third Party Service Provider (for example, Bank, Hospital, College, University,
Transport Services, Employer, etc.).
As shown in Fig. 2, Citizen performs electronic transaction with Government [2] to
send and receive SERVICE REQUEST and SERVICE RESPONSE through Path-
1 and Path-2, respectively. The sequence of operations during Citizen to Government
(C2G) type of Cloud Governance transaction is discussed below:
1. Citizen side: Citizen initiates electronic transaction and transmit SERVICE
REQUEST to Government using Multipurpose Electronic Card (MEC) through
public cloud medium.
2. Government side: Government receives SERVICE REQUEST from the Citizen,
which passes through the Firewall of Cloud Governance model.
3. Government side: Government verifies the identity of Citizen.
Scenario 1 (Verification Failure):
i. Transaction is aborted.
ii. Citizen is informed about Failure through System Timeout.
Scenario 2 (Verification Success):
i. SERVICE REQUEST is allowed to proceed further.

4. Government side: SERVICE REQUEST arrives at Cloud Service Server for

identification of specific type of service requested by Citizen.
5. Government side: Cloud Service Server performs READ and WRITE oper-
ations over Data Center connected to its Private Cloud and sends SERVICE
REQUEST to the service specific server like Bank, Education, Healthcare,
Employment, Voting, etc.
6. Government side: Service specific server receives SERVICE REQUEST through
Private Cloud of Cloud Governance model and transmit it to Third-Party Ser-
vice Provider through Public Cloud for generation of corresponding SERVICE
RESPONSE.

The success rate of this entire electronic service delivery is dependent over the iden-
tity verification of Citizen, who is the ultimate beneficiary of this Cloud Governance
820 A. Biswas and A. Roy

model. To ensure the identity of user through strict cryptographic security proto-
col, we have applied Blockchain during electronic transaction which is discussed in
subsequent section of this paper.

5 Application of Blockchain in Cloud Governance Model

In our proposed Cloud Governance model we have assigned individual Blockchain

for updated record maintenance of respective user. Here we have used Permis-
sioned Blockchain [6, 15] based network for authentication of user during Citizen
to Government (C2G) type of Cloud Governance transaction. In this case a valid
member of Permissioned Blockchain network holds the Distributed Ledger [7, 13]
and Citizen sends its credentials to the registration portal for its verification. In case
of successful verification, registration portal send Citizen information to Blockchain
as the part of Citizen-Registration-Request (Service Request) to perform Blockchain
Mining [14] for updation of Blockchain Ledger. Only after updation of Citizen infor-
mation, Registration Portal issues credential and unique Multipurpose Electronic
Card (MEC) ID [16, 17] to the Citizen. Thus, Citizen can use this unique Multi-
purpose Electronic Card (MEC) ID for its verification while availing the electronic
services of our Cloud Governance model. The user registration of our concept is
explain in subsequent section of this paper.

5.1 User Registration Using Blockchain

The essential players of our proposed framework are Client (i.e., Citizen), Document
Verifier, Government (i.e., State and its agencies) and Third-Party Service Provider
which are connected through Public Cloud [23]. As shown in Fig. 3 the step-wise
explanation of our proposed Blockchain Based User Registration System is described
below:
CLIENT Side:
Step 1: Citizen input data and uploads it into the system to register through Public
Kiosk [19] (i.e., Public Cloud).
DOCUMENT VERIFIER Side:
Step 2: The physical documents play a vital role for verification of user (i.e., Citi-
zen). Document Verifier verifies the uploaded document with its original counterpart.
Step 3: Document Verifier transmit SERVICE REQUEST to Government for
identification of Citizen mentioned within it.
GOVERNMENT Side:
Step 4: Government uses SERVICE REQUEST to store Citizen data securely into
Blockchain. This step is shown as User Registration Process in Fig. 2.
Blockchain-Based User Authentication in Cloud Governance Model 821

Fig. 3 Blockchain-based user registration in basic cloud c-governance model

Step 5: After storing Citizen data into Blockchain, Blockchain returns Hash as
SERVICE RESPONSE.
Step 6: Cloud Governance Interface returns unique Multipurpose Electronic Card
(MEC) ID to the Citizen and Document Verifier as SERVICE RESPONSE through
Public Cloud [24].
DOCUMENT VERIFIER Side:
Step 7: Finally, Document Verifier Issues Multipurpose Electronic Card (MEC)
Card to the Citizen after receiving unique Multipurpose Electronic Card (MEC) ID
through SERVICE RESPONSE.

5.2 User Authentication Using Blockchain

The authentication of user of our proposed Cloud Governance model is discussed

thoroughly in this section. As shown in Fig. 4, our proposed Blockchain-based user
authentication is further explained below:
CITIZEN Side:
Step 1: Citizen uses Multipurpose Electronic Card (MEC) to transmit SERVICE
REQUEST during Citizen to Government (C2G) type of Cloud Governance trans-
action using Public Kiosk (i.e., Public Cloud).
CLOUD Communication:
Step 2: Public Kiosk (i.e., Public Cloud) transmit SERVICE REQUEST to Cloud
Governance model.
GOVERNMENT Side:
Step 3: Cloud Governance Interface send SERVICE REQUEST to Blockchain
for verification.
Step 4: Blockchain returns Blockchain Hash to Cloud Governance Interface.
Step 5: Cloud Governance System verifies Citizen with its Blockchain Hash value.
Step 6: Anyone of the following situation will prevail.
Situation 1 (Success): In case of successful verification of Citizen, SERVICE
REQUEST is sent to Cloud Service Server.
822 A. Biswas and A. Roy

Fig. 4 Blockchain-based user authentication in cloud governance model

Situation 2 (Failure): In case of verification failure, SERVICE REQUEST is aborted

and Citizen is notified through System Timeout.
Step 7: SERVICE REQUEST proceeds from Cloud Service (i.e., C-Service)
Server toward Private Cloud through Firewall.
Step 8: The Data Center attached to the Private Cloud performs essential Read
and Write operations about the SERVICE REQUEST.
Step 9: Depending upon the SERVICE REQUEST of Citizen, respective service
server is selected.
Step 10: This step denotes the last phase of Government interference over the entire
electronic communication, where SERVICE REQUEST is transmitted to Third-Party
Service Provider through Public Cloud for its final execution.
Blockchain-Based User Authentication in Cloud Governance Model 823

THIRD-PARTY SERVICE PROVIDER Side:

Step 11: The Third-Party Service Provider will receive SERVICE REQUEST
of Citizen and execute it to generate SERVICE RESPONSE. Step 12: Third-Party
Service Provider transmits SERVICE RESPONSE to Citizen through Public Cloud.
Depending upon the type of service requested by Citizen, sometimes Govern-
ment may also act as Service Provider and in that case SERVICE RESPONSE will
be generated by Government (instead of Third-Party Service Provider), which will
be communicated to Citizen through Public Cloud. Since we performed Blockchain-
based user verification of our proposed Cloud Governance model, there exists sig-
nificant amount of similarities between Fig. 2 and 4 of this paper. The presence of
Blockchain Network in Fig. 4 is its primary difference with Fig. 2, which is in fact
the main model of this Blockchain-based concept.
In this paper we have conceptualized the application of Blockchain for authenti-
cation of user during C2G type of cloud for transaction. The implementation of this
concept along with relevant result analysis will be considered as future scope of the
work.

6 Conclusion

In this paper authors have described application of Permissioned Blockchain for user
authentication during Citizen to Government (C2G) type of Cloud Governance trans-
action. This Cloud Governance model will attempt to deliver electronic services to
the Citizen through the cloud platform. Citizen will use a single smart card namely
Multipurpose Electronic Card (MEC) to send multifaceted SERVICE REQUEST
to the Service Provider and receive corresponding SERVICE RESPONSE in reply
from the Service Provider. It is utmost necessary to build trust about the integrity of
this electronic service delivery model among its ultimate beneficiaries. As mentioned
above, this trust can be developed using advanced technologies like Blockchian for
verification of end user during the electronic transactions. This Blockchain-based
verification scheme can be applied over any type of electronic message communica-
tion like Cloud Banking, Cloud Healthcare system, Cloud Transport management,
etc. We have used a multivariate smart card-based interface between the Citizen and
Government (i.e., Service Provider) for exchange of SERVICE REQUEST and
SERVICE RESPONSE in a secure manner through Cloud.

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